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2 Sept 2016

This summer, new ecodesign requirements began to apply to business-use refrigerators in the EU. As set out in Commission Regulation 2015/1095 which was published in the EU’s Official Journal just over a year ago on 8 July 2015, the Regulation establishes ecodesign requirements for the placing on the market of professional refrigerated storage cabinets and blast cabinets.

The Regulation is intended to apply to electric mains-operated blast cabinets, and electric mains-operated professional refrigerated storage cabinets including those sold for the refrigeration of foodstuffs and animal feed.

The ecodesign requirements for professional refrigerated storage cabinets and blast cabinets are set out in Annex II to the Regulation, while the ecodesign requirements for condensing units are set out in Annex V, and for process chillers they are set out in Annex VII. It is advised that Hong Kong manufacturers exporting any of these products to the EU examine the technical requirements of these annexes carefully.

From 1 July 2016:

Condensing units must comply with the requirements set out in points 1(a) and 2 of Annex V.

Process chillers must comply with the requirements set out in points 1(a) and 2 of Annex VII.

Professional refrigerated storage cabinets must comply with the requirements set out in points 1(a)(i) and 2(a) of Annex II.

Heavy-duty cabinets shall comply with the requirements set out in point 1(b) and 2(a) of Annex II.

Blast cabinets shall comply with requirements set out in point 2(b) of Annex II.

Thereafter, later dates apply to further stringent ecodesign requirements, as specified in Article 3 of the Regulation and respective annexes.

Hong Kong sellers of the equipment covered by Regulation 2015/1095 will, furthermore, have to disclose their energy efficiency levels and other parameters – such as cooling capacity – both online and in instruction manuals.

All producers have to ensure that a relevant conformity assessment procedure is conducted, together with the preparation of the required technical documentation (see: Article 4 of the Regulation). The Member States’ market surveillance authorities, when checking for product compliance, will have to apply the verification procedure that is set out in in Annexes IX, X and XI of Commission Regulation 2015/1095.

In addition to the ecodesign requirements, “refrigerated storage cabinets” will have to be equipped with an energy efficiency label. Created under a separate regulation, namely Commission Delegated Regulation 2015/1094 with regard to the energy labelling of professional refrigerated storage cabinets, the new energy sticker is said to be the first to specifically target professional equipment.

The labelling Regulation establishes requirements for the labelling of, and the provision of supplementary product information on, professional refrigerated storage cabinets. The Regulation applies to electric mains-operated professional refrigerated storage cabinets, including those sold for the refrigeration of foodstuffs and animal feed. For product types not covered by the labelling requirement, Hong Kong companies should see Article 1 of Regulation 2015/1094.

From 1 July 2016, suppliers placing professional refrigerated storage cabinets on the market or putting them into service must ensure that the following requirements are met:

a printed label in the format and containing the information set out in Annex III shall be provided for each professional refrigerated storage cabinet;

an electronic label in the format and containing the information set out in Annex III shall be made available to dealers for each professional refrigerated storage cabinet model;

a product fiche, as set out in Annex IV, shall be made available;

an electronic product fiche, as set out in Annex IV, shall be made available to dealers for each professional refrigerated storage cabinet model;

technical documentation, as set out in Annex V, shall be provided on request to the authorities of the Member States;

any advertisement relating to a specific professional refrigerated storage cabinet model and containing energy-related or price information shall include a reference to the energy efficiency class of that model;

any technical promotional material concerning a specific professional refrigerated storage cabinet model and describing its specific technical parameters shall include a reference to the energy efficiency class of that model.

In short, just as in the case of household products, the business-to-business energy label will include the A+, A++ and A+++ categories. However, according to a current European Commission proposal, this could be rescaled to an A-to-G system in the future.

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